


Someone to Lean On

by theartofbeinganerd



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Post Season 3, Pre-time jump, Still Pretty Fluffy Though
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-06
Updated: 2016-08-06
Packaged: 2018-07-29 18:33:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,702
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7694980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theartofbeinganerd/pseuds/theartofbeinganerd
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wanting to help Daisy out of the depression she's been in since Lincoln's death, Jemma plans her a birthday party with the help of Fitz and the rest of the team. Jemma is crushed, however, when things don't go according to plan. But, as always, Fitz is there to comfort her.</p>
<p>*Set during the six months between Hive's defeat and the beginning of Season Four</p>
            </blockquote>





	Someone to Lean On

**Author's Note:**

> I've been meaning to write something about Daisy's birthday since July, but I'm just getting around to it now so even if it's a bit late, I hope you still enjoy!
> 
> (Fun Fact: My friend's daughter has the same birthday as Daisy! Her first birthday party was on July 2nd this year, and that's partially why it took me a bit to get to this story.)

Truly, from the very beginning, Jemma had _known_ that it was likely to blow up in her face, but she just hadn’t been able to help herself. She’d spent the past couple months watching helplessly as one of her closest friends retreated further and further inside of herself, locking herself away in her room and only emerging for the meals they all knew she barely touched. It was killing all of them to stand by and witness Daisy falling apart, so when the day Jemma had found out was Daisy’s _actual_ birthday began to fast approach, she came up with an idea.

“I’m not sure that’s the best thing for her right now,” Fitz admitted a bit warily, his lips pulling down at the corners into a frown even as his fingertips idly trailed along the bare skin of her waist.

“Perhaps not,” Jemma conceded, giving a slight shrug, “But she must be so lonely, and we have to do _something_ to try and raise her spirits.”

“I don’t think she’s lonely, Jem,” he sighed, his fingers pausing their journey so that his hand could rest on her hip. “She’s grieving and needs space.”

Jemma let out a long sigh, rolling off her side and onto her back, causing Fitz’s hand to slide along her hip to rest over her stomach. “I need to do something, Fitz – _anything_. I can’t simply sit here and watch her break apart any longer.”

He was quiet a moment, the only response from him the gentle stroking of his thumb over the skin of her stomach. Then, finally, he leaned in closer to press a kiss to her temple. “Alright, I’ll help you.”

Surprised and delighted, Jemma turned to face him with a beaming grin. “Really?!”

Fitz chuckled, giving a teasing roll of his eyes. “When have I _ever_ refused you anything? Besides, I know you mean well and how hard it is for you to keep yourself from trying to help her. You’ve been doing fantastic with that, by the way.” Then, a little smirk tugged at his lips, and he added, “Well, up till now at least.”

Jemma gave a mock-affronted gasp, though it was quickly followed by the giggles she couldn’t contain as she playfully tackled Fitz, pinning his hands down on either side of his head as she straddled his waist. She was about to go in for the kiss his incredibly kissable lips were practically begging for when something occurred to her, and she pulled back with a wince. “Let’s not…tell her that we discussed this while naked in bed. That seems a bit rude, all things considered.”

“I would hope that no matter Daisy’s situation, we’d _never_ tell her about what we did while naked in bed,” Fitz pointed out with a raised eyebrow.

Jemma scoffed through a smirk, bending down to press a kiss to the tip of his nose. “You’re so cute when you’re naïve.”

-

Their friends were also a bit hesitant when Jemma brought up the idea, but eventually they each caved, all desperate to do anything they could to bring Daisy out of her shell. As such, on the morning of July 2nd, Jemma directed Mack, May, Coulson, and Yo-Yo through hanging streamers and inflating balloons, stringing up a banner and setting up a small snack table, in case Daisy decided she was hungry.

When they were nearly finished, she felt it safe to leave the lounge for the kitchen, where Fitz was baking the cake (he’d always been the more culinary-inclined of the two of them, though Jemma had understood why quite clearly after her first visit to his mum in Glasgow). She found him just taking the cake out of the oven, and he caught her eye with a smile as he placed it on the counter. “Just needs a bit to cool and then I can frost it.”

“Perfect.” Jemma took one of the stools at the table, a pleased smile curving her lips when Fitz forwent the stool beside her to instead stand between her knees, gently tugging her against his chest and resting his chin on top of her head. She let out a sigh of contentment as she happily snuggled into him, sliding her arms loosely around his waist.

A comfortable silence descended between them for a bit, but it was eventually broken by Fitz’s soft voice as he admitted, “She found me in the lab close to midnight, and just sat down next to me with this little cupcake in her hands, a candle stuck in the top. With no explanation, she blows out the candle, then tells me that it’s her birthday – her _real_ birthday this time – and that that means her wish’ll come true. Then, she just smiles at me and hands me the cupcake before leaving. I didn’t even tell her happy birthday.”

Jemma fought a shudder as she was brought back to a year previous, when she’d been stranded on Maveth and Fitz had been desperately searching for a way to save her. She tightened her grip on him, nuzzling against the soft fabric of his shirt, the familiar scent that was purely _Fitz_ that was clinging to it keeping her firmly grounded in the _now_. However, that didn’t stop her from feeling the guilt of how ragged Fitz had run himself in his search for her, his little glimpse into the past a stark reminder of just how _different_ things had been a year ago.

Forcing back the painfully familiar guilt burning up her throat, Jemma leaned back a bit to catch Fitz’s eye as she assured him softly, “Daisy understood, Fitz.”

“Probably,” Fitz agreed, though his voice was still a bit gruff with the displeasure in himself she’d heard far too often.

Tilting her head up, she planted a little kiss on his jaw, then told him, “Well, then we’ll just have to give her our first birthday wishes on her true birthday together.”

Fitz’s frustration with himself lingered for only a moment longer before he smiled down at her, leaning down to catch her lips in a brief kiss. “Yeah. Yeah, that sounds good.” He pressed one last kiss to her lips, then gently untangled himself from her embrace, throwing her a small smirk over his shoulder at her little moan of loss as he checked the cake. “Ready for frosting, I’d say.”

“Make sure it says ‘Happy Birthday Daisy’,” Jemma reminded him quickly, “with little daisies in the corners.”

“Of course, how could I forget?” Fitz asked sarcastically, holding up the detailed instructions she’d given him with an arched eyebrow.

“You’ve known I was a meticulous planner for years,” she told him, narrowing her eyes and pointing at him mock-threateningly, “You knew what you were getting into!”

Fitz let out a hearty chuckle at that, pausing in his cake frosting to cross back to her stool so that he could drop a loving kiss on her forehead. “Oh, I’ve always known you were an odd one. Still fell in love with you anyway, so it’s certainly on me.” As Jemma’s heart was beating loudly in her ears at the reminder of their still-fresh declarations of love, Fitz used her distraction against her to swipe a glob of frosting over the bridge of her nose. “Actually, I think it’s on _you_.”

“ _Fitz_!” Jemma shrieked in surprise at the assault, her eyes narrowing into a glare when he dodged her punch to the arm and his laughter filled the kitchen. “Oh, you’re going to _pay_ for that!”

She’d just hopped down from her stool and was advancing menacingly on Fitz when she heard, “Oh god, you guys aren’t going to have sex in here, are you?”

Freezing immediately, Jemma shared a wide-eyed look with Fitz before they both whirled to face Daisy, standing in the doorway in one of the few pairs of sweats she’d been switching between ever since exiling herself to her bunk. “Daisy!” she cried, forcing a grin to hide her shock at Daisy’s abrupt and ill-timed appearance.

Then, without an ounce of planning, she and Fitz both blurted out at the same time, “Happy Birthday!”

Daisy almost seemed to wince, wrapping her arms tighter around herself as she dropped her gaze to the ground. “Thanks guys.” Suddenly, she seemed to think of something, her head rising quickly and her eyes growing wide. “Wait. You aren’t…making me a cake are you?”

“Uh…” Swallowing nervously, Jemma exchanged another look with Fitz, but he simply shrugged (very unhelpfully, she must add).

“Look, I appreciate it, but –”

Daisy’s protest didn’t get any further, as Fitz then quickly cut in to tell her, “Jemma’s spent days planning you a party, Daisy.” Out of the corner of her eye, Jemma saw the pleading look Fitz was sending Daisy, and even as she opened her mouth to assure her that it was alright if she didn’t want the party, she fell impossibly more in love with him.

However, before Jemma could get a word out, Daisy turned to her and smiled as genuinely as she seemed able to. “Thanks, Jemma. So, where’s the party at?”

“I’ll just finish up with the cake and meet you there,” Fitz said hastily, obviously reading Jemma’s intention to once more tell Daisy that she wasn’t obligated to the party. He picked up a towel, gently cleaning off the frosting she had forgotten he’d decorated her with, then caught her hand to give it a quick squeeze before sending them on their way.

The walk to the lounge was uncomfortably silent between Jemma and Daisy, and she was shamefully relieved when they arrived to find the others all waiting, a series of warm smiles appearing on their faces as they caught sight of Daisy and called out, “Happy Birthday!”

Daisy smiled wearily at them in response, quietly thanking them as Jemma put on one of the party hats she managed to convince everyone but May to wear. She hung back as Daisy half-heartedly mingled, and it wasn’t long before Fitz was arriving with the cake and joining her with a party hat of his own. “She’s trying,” he assured her softly, wrapping a comforting arm around her shoulders and pressing a kiss to the top of her head.

“Because of me, not for herself,” Jemma pointed out unhappily. The last thing she’d wanted was to guilt Daisy into thinking she had to pretend to be happy for her friends.

“It’s somewhere to start,” Fitz insisted, softly squeezing her shoulders.

-

Despite all of their best efforts, it only went downhill from the start. Daisy spent much of the party sitting off to the side, not speaking and simply staring at the opposite wall, only replying in short, one-word answers when someone attempted to speak with her. The vibe of the whole party was stifling and depressing, and barely even _felt_ like a party. When it was time for cake and Jemma and Fitz spent a fair few minutes bickering about candle placement, Daisy looked about ready to break down in tears. Just moments after she’d blown out the candles, the tears began to fall, and she dashed out of the room without a backward glance.

For a long moment, Jemma stared despairingly after Daisy, barely even noticing as Coulson patted her on the shoulder and commended her quietly for trying. They all silently trickled out after that, until it was just Fitz and Jemma remaining and she turned to him and said practically, “We should probably clean up, then.”

Fitz frowned in concern, gently grasping her arm as she made for the banner. “Jem, hey, wait. It’s not your fault.”

Swallowing back her tears, Jemma ignored his attempts at soothing as she shook off his grip. “There’s not much we can do about the balloons until they deflate, and perhaps it’d be best for Mack to get the streamers since he’s the only one tall enough to reach up there. But, we can take down the banner and put away the food. Perhaps if we put the cake in the fridge, she’ll eventually come across it and want a piece – it is her cake, after all.”

She heard Fitz’s heavy sigh, and knew that he wanted to talk to her about it, but he went along with her instructions without comment because he knew how she processed and dealt with emotions, the dear man.

They finished the clean up quickly and quietly, and it wasn’t until the door to his bunk had closed behind them that she let the tears fall as she sat heavily on the edge of his bed. Immediately, Fitz was at her side, wrapping her up in his arms and curling her into his chest as he rubbed her back. “I pushed her too far,” Jemma gasped out through the tears, shaking her head rapidly at her own selfishness.

“No, you didn’t,” Fitz insisted firmly. “You were trying to help her, and she knows that.” When Jemma simply continued to shake her head, he went on, “I promise, she appreciates it, Jemma. She just isn’t able to express that to you right now, but believe me, she _is_ grateful. She’s not in a place where she wants to heal, but I know she understands what you’re trying to do. _Trust me_.”

The fact that could clearly tell that he was speaking from experience only made her cry harder, because it had been _her_ fault that Fitz had ever felt the way that Daisy currently did. Perhaps she hadn’t been _quite_ as at fault when she’d been sucked into the monolith, but it had certainly been on her when he’d been so broken and hurting after the pod, struggling with the after-effects of his near-drowning and her subsequent departure to HYDRA.

“Jemma,” he whispered, gently pulling back from her and lifting her chin up so that their gazes met through her tears. “Hey, don’t do this to yourself. I know you forget sometimes, but the world doesn’t rest solely on your shoulders. Love, you can’t expect yourself to fix all the world’s problems – though if anyone could, it would certainly be you.”

Jemma’s heart skipped a beat at the term of endearment he’d never used before – in fact, he’d never used any terms of endearment for her before. However, it wasn’t strange or odd in anyway, and the idea of them referring to each other with cute little pet names actually made her quite giddy because though it was something she’d never imagined wanting, it only proved once more just how starkly different her relationship with Fitz was from anything she’d ever experienced before. She wanted it all with him, each and every disgustingly cute cliché.

“What?” Fitz asked, his brow furrowing, “Why are you looking at me like that?”

Instead of trying to put her feelings into words, Jemma just smiled through her now drying tears, shaking her head as she murmured, “I love you.”

Fitz’s eyes lit up at the words he was still obviously getting used to hearing from her, a small smile of his own tugging at his lips. “I love you too, Jem.”

She spent another moment just gazing into the eyes she knew better than her own, enjoying the simple sight of the man she loved more than anything, before she buried herself back in his embrace, soaking in the comfort of being in his arms.

Without her needing to say a word, Fitz seemed to understand that she was still upset about her failed attempt to cheer up Daisy, as he tightened his arms around her, leaning down to press a kiss to her hair. “All we can do is wait and be there when she’s ready,” he whispered soothingly.

“Just try and stop us,” Jemma added with a touch of returning hope. As hard as it was watching one of their friends go through such a devastating time, she just had to remember that there was going to be a day when Daisy had healed enough to accept their help in picking up the pieces – and of course that no matter what, she and Fitz would always have each other to lean on.

But, that was a given.


End file.
